Protecting Yourself Online with Free Web Proxy Servers

In recent times, privacy online has become a big issue, making free web proxy servers a viable alternative for many web surfers. Basically, a proxy server conceals your specific Internet address to protect your anonymity online.

Protecting privacy online is a very real concern. For example, many people resent the idea that the government can have access to an individual’s online history– often without needing a warrant. Likewise, many companies, organizations and schools routinely monitor the online history of their computer users. And unfortunately, there are also spammers and online criminals who seek to gain personal information about web surfers for identity theft or other illegal acts.

How does a free web proxy server work?

The word “proxy” means “to go between.” This is actually the simplest way of understanding what a proxy server does. Proxy servers act as a filter between your computer and the Internet. The most popular use of this technology is to provide anonymous web surfing from any location in the world.

When using a web proxy server, you are technically not connecting to the Internet; instead, you are connecting to a remote computer or server which is connected to the Internet. Therefore, you are able to surf the Internet “by proxy.”

When surfing the net on a free web proxy server, your Internet browser history will reveal only that you have connected to the proxy site, not the actual web sites you have visited. Using a proxy server will also eliminate the problem of web sites depositing so-called “cookies” on your computer.

A “cookie” is a tiny information file that is left behind when you visit a particular web site online. It can contain information about the exact time of your visit, the length of time you were on the site, information about your location, IP address, operating system and other identifying characteristics. “Cookies” can even contain log on and password information, making them a potential security risk if they should fall into the wrong hands.

But using a free web proxy server completely eliminates “cookies” on your computer. Instead, the sites you visit will attempt to deposit “cookies” on the actual proxy server — not on your computer.

For all of these reasons and more, it can be smart to use a web proxy service to surf the web, and there are many online to choose from. A simple Google or Yahoo search will reveal thousands of free web proxy servers; however, it is important to be aware that the most popular of these free services tend to run very slowly, making for a frustrating web surfing experience.

But if the free web proxy servers are too slow for your taste, there are also paid services that will provide much faster anonymous online browsing. There are many of these available, and most require either a monthly or weekly subscription fee. If protecting your identity and privacy online is a primary concern, paid proxy services can provide peace of mind for a very reasonable cost.

The Internet is a great resource, but unfortunately, it also has its share of disreputable webmasters and spammers. Using free web proxy servers is a great way to keep your private information from falling into the wrong hands.

Author: This article is the property of PXYList.com. PXYList.com provides a monitored, hand-picked list of free Web proxy servers that are guaranteed to be up and working 24/7.

Thinking about setting up a Craigslist Proxy and curious about why or if a password is really needed to access it?  If this sounds like you, then there are a few things you should know before you setup your proxy server without making it password protected.

Having to constantly enter usernames and passwords when changing IPs can be tiring but should not be neglected. Since a proxy server is on the internet, it is possible that anyone could gain access to the server if they knew the IP. However, some may think that finding the IP of your proxy server is next to impossible due to the large amount of other machines and IPs on the internet. Technology today can allow someone to potentially find your proxy server with great ease by simply scanning IP ranges looking for servers that are not secured with a password. For this reason it is strongly suggested that you ALWAYS use a login and password on your proxy server. Not doing so means that if someone else gains access (very possible this will happen) they will use and abuse your server and you will be responsible for any actions they do. Instead of not using a password, look to use software the can save usernames and passwords for the IP ports on your proxy to save time. Use these instead as they will achieve what you want (speeding up the login process) but also allow you to retain the high level of security that your Craigslist Proxy requires.

So, before you setup your Craigslist proxy remember to make it password protected and instead look for other software or alternatives if you want to avoid having to retype your login details each time.

Today more and more people use the Internet, because all we need to know is just a click away. The Internet is a very efficient and quick way of finding information about almost everything. However, there is also a bad side to the Internet and that is that you are exposed to hackers and your every step on the net can be monitored.

Because privacy, Internet crime, hacking were becoming more and more of an issue and many people were afraid to use the Internet because of the consequences, free proxy surfing sounded like a dream, something that had to be done. If software was designed to insure the privacy, the anonymity of the people using the Internet, then all of these problems would find their ending. With free proxy surfing, people did not have to worry anymore about somebody spying their every move or finding out their address or even their social security numbers.

Free proxy surfing is like a buffer between you and the web sites that you want to visit. It allows you to view as many information as you want on the Internet without the concern of being tracked. There are two ways that this can be accomplished: by using a program that can insure your anonymity or by using free proxy sites.

Free proxy surfing with the help of programs is a little more complicated and may not always work. On the other hand free proxy sites are very easy to use and can guarantee a very good result. Nowadays more and more people are using free proxy sites to surf the net. All one has to do in this cases is visit the free proxy site that assures your anonymity and enter the web site address, URL, of the page that you want to visit and remain anonymous at the same time.

How does this work? Well, when using a free proxy site to surf the net and remain anonymous at the same time, the proxy retrieves all the web sites before they are actually delivered to the person. This way, the other server will not see your IP address or other information, but it will see the anonymous proxy’ s adress.

However, there are also some bad news when talking about free proxy surfing. Although, using free proxy sites sounds like a dream, there are also some downs that you should know about. When free proxy surfing, your browsing speed will slow down a little bit. Another thing is that there are many ads on these free proxy sites, that may drive you a little crazy at times. Moreover, there is always the chance that the actual proxy server record your data and a malicious server can find out everything about your machine. This can be avoided if using a free proxy server that is highly rated and also has a very specific privacy policy.

So, besides three little inconvenience, the biggest of them being the browsing speed, free proxy surfing can get you out trouble and inure the anonymity and privacy that you are in titled.

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